Online learning is quickly taking over the traditional classroom environment, both at educational institutes (K-12 schools & universities) and corporate organizations.
Even before the pandemic, virtual e-learning was rapidly on the rise and the market is expected to reach a whopping $374.3 billion by 2026.
This trend only grew with educational institutes and businesses going remote after the arrival of the pandemic.
Learning institutions and businesses alike now commonly use online video education platforms to host live virtual classes, real-time corporate training sessions, stream asynchronous videos or courses and manage their digital learning assets for a seamless online experience.
And though there are many video learning platforms, there are substantial differences amongst them, with some not catering well to corporate learning needs.
To make the right choice, organizations need to know what each platform has to offer. VIDIZMO is a video learning platform that caters well to both education use cases as well as the corporate training and learning use case - a comprehensive solution that is easy-to-use for instructors and students with engaging video features.
What Should You Look for in An Online Video Education Platform?
An effective video education platform should be simple, provide the necessary functionalities for video learning for both the instructors and the students, ensure the security and privacy of your learning videos and internal content, be flexible for integrations and deployment and provide quick and reliable support in case of an issue or emergency.
Jump To Learn What VIDIZMO & Others Have To Offer
Simplicity
The right platform should be easy to deploy, simple to use and quickly adaptable. The platform will be used by instructors, learners and managers - it must be easily operable and navigable for all of them despite its extensive functionalities
Functionalities
Not all video education platforms are optimal for e-learning or corporate learning. It’s important for the platform to be able to provide tools that facilitate the organization and flow of learning.
Some must-have functionalities are:
- Live streaming for real-time lectures
- On-demand video streaming to support Asynchronous training
- In-video interactivity (quizzes, polls, surveys...)
- Organized video portal with smart search capabilities
- Automatic transcoding, transcription, and indexing
- Annotations, comments, & social sharing supporting collaboration
- Device-agnostic and browser-agnostic
- Desktop application supporting offline viewing
- Advanced Analytics tracking learning progress
Privacy & Security
Your content is valuable. It’s important to ensure only authorized people can access the platform. Especially with businesses going virtual and the increasing trend towards remote work, security is a greater threat than ever.
A reliable video platform should have enterprise-grade security controls on the platform, including:
- SSO integration with SCIM support
- Content encryption
- Role-based access controls
- Block downloading
- Password-protection
- IP restriction
- User groups to segregate videos
Learn more about secure video hosting in VIDIZMO
Integrations
No platform can work in a silo as educational institutes & corporations utilize several learning tools at a time, including a video platform for education, learning management system (LMS) and video conferencing system, like Zoom or MS Teams.
The platform must integrate with 3rd party systems and enable interoperability for greater efficiency. LMSs are not designed to support videos. Similarly, video conferencing systems are not able to manage & support secure and optimized playback of recorded (asynchronous) meetings, like training sessions. A video platform brings these video management capabilities to them.
Plus, it gets challenging for security personnel to put effective mechanisms in place when dealing with multiple IT systems. Here's what the CISO of Cisco mentioned in the Cisco Security Outcomes Study:
“Security buyers often have dozens of different tools from multiple vendors, and generally have to use a fair amount of duct tape to get them to work together. This creates complexity, cost, and overhead.”
Deployment
The platform must also support multiple deployment models for a variety of customer needs:
- SaaS
- Customer or Vendor provided cloud
- On-premise
- Hybrid
Some customers may even choose to migrate from one form of deployment to another later on. A video platform should be flexible enough to cater to the customer's deployment needs.
Support
When dealing with a comprehensive technology, technical issues are bound to arise. On such occasions, it’s important to have reliable customer support that can help you find a solution quickly. Support can be provided in many ways, from direct calls and emails to how-to videos and FAQs.
Since a glitch or hiccup can arise unexpectedly, it’s important for support to be available 24/7. A reliable platform won’t leave you in the dark when you need it the most.
Which Video Platform is the Right One for You?
Now let’s take a look at some popular video platforms for education and see how they fare.
Top 4 Online Video Platforms:
VIDIZMO
Here is an AI-powered secure video platform for education with a comprehensive offering for all your learning needs.
VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube supports:
- live streaming for synchronous training and learning
- recording of the live streams supporting asynchronous learning
- on-demand video streaming for asynchronous training
If that's not enough, the video platform allows automated management of your educational content and secure sharing of these videos, supporting both internal and external video learning use cases.
The platform is equipped with a number of tools to enhance your current digital learning environment where corporate trainers and educators can stream live online classes and host on-demand learning videos for self-paced asynchronous training courses.
There are multitudes of supportive video features such as:
- In-video interactive elements
- Advanced analytics dashboard
- User groups to securely share courses with different teams
- Role-based access controls to limit portal users' video actions (like blocking downloads)
- Secure limited sharing of training materials with external or internal learners
- Out-of-the-box integration with video conferencing systems and LMS, among others
- Deployable flexibly in the cloud, on-premises, in a hybrid model or as a SaaS product
Yamaha Streamlined Their Employee Training Experience Using VIDIZMO - Read More on This Story
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Simplicity
With a very simple user interface and a fixed navigation menu, the video platform is easy to use. It offers something very similar to YouTube, which is a preferred platform when it comes to watching videos. Organize videos in different playlists, collections and categories, featuring the important ones out of these on your video portal's home page.
You'll be able to find that 1 video amongst 1000s even if you have forgotten the title. You will even be able to jump right to the specific part you are looking for based on the in-video spoken words, on-screen text, faces, and objects. How, you may ask?
Well, VIDIZMO AI-power indexing capabilities not only index your video's manual tags but also automatically create tags utilizing automatic transcription (and its translation in over 50 languages), optical character recognition, facial detection and object recognition.
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Assign different pre-defined roles to users based on the tasks they need to perform. Educators and trainers can use a similar interface with more accessible options and permissions, such as the ability to upload videos from anywhere on the platform, conduct live webinars and manage all videos on the platform.
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Functions & Features
Once a video is uploaded, instructors can utilize built-in video editing tool to custom select its thumbnail and trim out any unnecessary bits or merge relevant parts (particularly useful for your hour-long live lectures to be turned into asynchronous training).
They can make their training videos interactive through in-video:
- Quizzes - to test students or employees comprehension, progress and information retention
- Downloadable Handouts - to provide additional information at different points in your training
- Surveys or Polls - to generate feedback to gauge if your audience is satisfied with the training content or just create engaging short polls
- Enable Annotations - for learners to mark important points in training videos (used as a collaborative tool as visible to all learners)
- Comments - Viewers can leave comments with clickable timestamps to fast forward to the relevant point in the video
- Create Course Playlists or Collections - Provide self-paced guided educational content by arranging them in a course playlist (or better yet create a collection and various other related digital media in between each video)
Instructors will also have access to a personal library, where they can view media uploaded by them with access marked as "Only me" as well as media shared with them from other users. Here is a video sharing all that this feature provides:
View detailed analytics in easy-to-read dashboards and reports to track the learning progress of the students or employees. Track number of views, video completion (based on the completion criteria you set), engagement trends, devices used, and much more.
VIDIZMO is also a end-to-end SCORM-compliant video training platform. You can import SCORM content and bundle it up with your training and learning video content to ensure a holistic learning experience.
Students can also interact using live chat and ask questions using Q&A during a live stream, and the stream can be recorded, edited and saved for on-demand viewing as soon as the live ends.
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Privacy & Security
VIDIZMO provides multiple controls for ensuring a secure and compliant learning environment. The platform allows single sign-on integration and password protection for content (including content embedded on other sites and platforms), end-to-end content encryption at rest and in transit, domain restrictions, and various other tools to ensure only authorized users can access each content.
The platform also provides tools such as user groups, customizable role-based access controls and multiple autonomous video portals to ensure privacy by restricting access and segregating users or content. The platform even enables you to temporarily share videos for only a limited time or number of views with any internal or external users.
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Integrations and Deployment
The educational video platform can integrate with any LMS for video hosting and leveraging the platform’s features such as a powerful search and configurable video player within the familiar LMS interface. The platform also integrates with video conferencing systems such as Zoom to store and manage recorded meetings.
The platform offers flexible deployment options; you can deploy the platform on a public or private cloud from any provider (e.g., Azure, AWS, Google, etc.) of your choice, in your on-premise datacenters or in a hybrid infrastructure.
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Support
Kaltura
Kaltura provides a highly complex and customizable video platform for e-learning. The platform was founded initially as a video streaming solution for the media industry, specifically for over-the-top (OTT) broadcasting services. Kaltura now also offers solutions for other markets, such as video platforms for education, by providing a basic platform that needs to be constructed into a solution by coordinating with the customer.
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Simplicity
The platform's fragmented nature means that crafting and deploying the solution requires a lot of time investment with detailed business and technical coordination. Additionally, this creates price uncertainties and difficulties for cost management for Kaltura's pricing. Reportedly, certain inefficiencies in its on-premise can also mean you might need further customizations, configuration and updates with long scheduling times.
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Functions & Features
Kaltura provides solutions by combining and integrating a number of different products to create a consolidated video learning platform for education. You can stream live online classes, host & share learning videos, view analytics and conduct in-video quizzing. You can also create playlists for structured learning.
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Privacy & Security
There are a variety of security features available on Kaltura. The platform allows single sign-on integration and provides role-based access control, domain restrictions, encryption at rest and more.
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Integrations and Deployment
The platform integrates with LMS for video hosting and allows the system to leverage Kaltura’s features within the system. Kaltura also integrates with video conferencing systems for managing recorded meetings on the platform.
Kaltura’s video platform can be deployed in on-premise servers or on the Kaltura cloud. However, the cloud is operated on Kaltura’s own data centers that require a lot of hardware investments and offer limited scalability. A number of the customers have reported dissatisfaction with the platform for its unreliableness in keeping up with changes and developments in the business environment. Customers have also reported major inefficiencies for its on-premise deployment, including drawn-out time periods for deployment ranging from weeks to months, large backlogs for reinstallations, customizations and configurations, and long scheduling times for fixtures and upgrades.
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Support
Kaltura has a reputation for poor customer support and customer reviews frequently express the lack of reliable support being the major reason for dissatisfaction with the platform, followed by technology adaptability and ease-of-use.
There is no live support and complaints about a lack of responsiveness, lengthy response times, and overall fewer support options are common. Moreover, ongoing changes in Kaltura’s technology and their own needs make it necessary for customers to constantly hire expensive and professional Kaltura service agents, which also further adds to Kaltura’s high pricing.
Panopto
Panopto has a focus on providing a video platform for education and business. The platform provides live and on-demand video streaming, recording, management and sharing. Panopto is reliable for video streaming, but is noted to be a bit difficult to use. Moreover, the platform is heavily AWS-oriented, with limited flexibility for other popular deployment options, such as Microsoft Azure.
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Simplicity
The interface is simple and makes it easy to navigate by providing a fixed menu and search bar. However, the platform is considered a bit tough to use, ironically because the rich number of features makes it difficult to use the platform quickly and efficiently. For example, customers have complained about the recorder providing too many options that confuse delay the students. Others have referred to the platform as not suitable for those who are technically challenged.
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Functions & Features
Panopto allows you to live stream online classes, add quizzes and embed webpages in videos and add annotations. The platform provides you with a rich number of tools, such as the ability to record your screen with the lecture. However, there are many reviews complaining about bugs and glitches with the recording.
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Privacy & Security
The platform provides SSO for authentication, content encryption at rest and in transit, domain restrictions, and other tools to secure the platform.
The platform also provides tools such as role-based access controls and groups for restricted sharing and privacy. Panopto also leverages AWS on its own provided Panopto Cloud, reputed for security.
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Integrations and Deployment
Similar to VIDIZMO and Kaltura, you can integrate the system with your LMS and leverage the platform’s video streaming and management tools. Similarly, the platform integrates with video conferencing systems to manage recorded meetings.
There aren’t many options or flexibility when it comes to deployment, though. The platform is only deployable on the AWS and Azure Cloud, and is mostly AWS-oriented. If its listing on the Azure Marketplace is any hint, the platform does not have much focus on customers leveraging the Azure cloud. Furthermore, unlike most competitors, Panopto’s provided cloud is only hosted on AWS.
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Support
Panopto provides 24/7 customer support and other support options such as documentation, videos and forums for self-help.
Dacast
Dacast provides end-to-end video streaming and monetization features. The platform supports live and on-demand video streaming and allows video monetization. However, the solution is rather ‘incomplete’ when compared to other video platforms for education, lacking several important features such as quizzes and groups necessary for a remote online learning platform.
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Simplicity
The platform’s homepage provides a simple interface that displays a brandable header, search bar and the videos uploaded on the portal. When you play a video, however, the player extends across the screen and there is no way to navigate from the page other than by using the browser. Ironically, a limited amount of features and functionality makes it easier to control the setting for the video player.
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Functions & Features
Dacast falls short of meeting the mark when compared to other video platforms for education. The platform provides live video streaming with live chat for live classes, on-demand video hosting, video analytics for viewing engagement and the ability to create playlists. That’s pretty much it.
Quizzing, sharing presentations and documents, notes, comments and other principal features of an online video education platform are missing. User management is entirely non-existent; the platform only differentiates between people using the platform internally or externally. Other than that, there is no way to distinguish or manage users. There is no way to create groups, segregate users or configure access and permissions at a user level.
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Privacy & Security
Dacast provides controls such as domain restrictions and encryption but lacks other common features such as single sign-on and role-based access control.
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Integrations and Deployment
The platform can integrate with an LMS, but the lack of features, it has little to offer for the system other than streaming for videos.
When it comes to deployment, it’s safe to say there is no flexibility whatsoever. You can only deploy the solution on their provided AWS cloud. You have little to no control in their deployment process either.
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Support
The platform provides customer support 24/7 through calls, email, and chat. They also provide video tutorials, help articles and FAQs.
Conclusion
Choosing the right video platform for education can be a difficult decision and requires careful consideration. While there are many e-learning video platforms in the market, it's important to consider how successfully they fulfill your requirements, facilitate the users (e.g., students, teachers, etc.) and the platform's reliability to successfully provide a virtual learning environment.
We encourage you try our free trial for 30-day, or contact us now to learn more about VIDIZMO’s video platform for remote learning and online education.
